Writing Contests

Discussion in 'Reading & Writing' started by Corie Henson, Jul 8, 2015.

  1. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2015
    Messages:
    2,880
    Likes Received:
    2,465
    Have you joined a writing contest? I am not good at writing so I dont' have the volition to join such. However, there was a time that I joined one writing contest conducted by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). The winner would be given a tour of Japan. The theme is about the development of computer systems vis-a-vis the economy of the nation.

    It was 1991, if I remember it correctly. My entry was chosen as finalist and won me a technical dictionary, a good one for IT people because there was no Google yet and no internet either.
     
    #1
  2. Helene Lawson

    Helene Lawson Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2015
    Messages:
    394
    Likes Received:
    118
    I never joined a writing contest, but I work as a freelance writer, I write articles for different blogs & websites, and I get paid for doing that.
    Congratulations, on that contest you were a finalist of, I really enjoy writing, especially becausse I have a lot of free time for myself.
     
    #2
  3. Ike Willis

    Ike Willis Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2015
    Messages:
    2,460
    Likes Received:
    6,012
    I don't consider myself a writer. More of a scribbler. The difference is, a writer has to be concerned with word usage, sentence structure, punctuation and all sorts of correctness. A scribbler is more concerned with events as they happened and puts them down as he/she saw them. Sometimes I like to write the way I talk.
     
    #3
    Tom Locke and Yvonne Smith like this.
  4. Ruth Belena

    Ruth Belena Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2015
    Messages:
    289
    Likes Received:
    187
    I used to enter weekly writing contents at a revenue sharing site that no longer exists. Several times I was placed somewhere in the top three and three cash prizes were awarded in each contest. It was not a lot of money but it helped to increase my earnings at that site.
     
    #4
    Ike Willis likes this.
  5. Tom Locke

    Tom Locke Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2015
    Messages:
    1,222
    Likes Received:
    2,296
    Some writers have made a very good living out of that. The Scottish author Irving Welsh is one that springs to mind.
     
    #5
    Ike Willis likes this.
  6. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2015
    Messages:
    2,880
    Likes Received:
    2,465
    Congratulations for winning prizes. The prize money is not much, what counts more is the fact that you have proven your writing skills.

    My husband is fond of joining writing contests. His first venture is the short story contest in the US. He would be sending his entry in envelope - there was no internet yet that time. What made it expensive is the self-addressed stamped envelope that goes with the entry so he would be informed of the contest result. Well, he never won even once.

    But he is a fighter of sorts, believing that he has IT so he attended writing workshops to learn scriptwriting for movies. And eventually he joined big writing contests this time. Unfortunately, he got the same award... zero.
     
    #6
    Ike Willis likes this.
  7. Carlota Clemens

    Carlota Clemens Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2015
    Messages:
    430
    Likes Received:
    322
    Wanting to become a famous writer, I used to participate in each and every contest taking place in my city.

    Those were the days when there was no Internet yet, and I used to buy a weekly cultural magazine, where those contests were announced.

    I earned two literary contests, receiving a diploma, a cash price and one of them gave me the opportunity to get published my work along with other finalist authors.

    Later, when being online, never thought to participate in any contest, despite the many I have seen all of this time.
     
    #7
  8. Michelle Stevens

    Michelle Stevens Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2015
    Messages:
    296
    Likes Received:
    128
    When I was in my twenties I belonged to a writer's circle based in another city, so I never attended meetings but received their newsletters and I often entered their monthly competitions. I was lucky enough to come away with one win in a poetry competition, but I eventually lost interest because their prizes were so small.

    In those days our Saturday newspaper used to have competitions to write captions for cartoons and I won those on several occasions. I loved trying to come up with ideas for the cartoons and was really disappointed when they were discontinued. South African newspapers and magazines do nothing to encourage creativity any more.

    I stopped entering writing competitions a long time ago because most of them have high entry fees. Maybe one day I'll start again.
     
    #8

Share This Page